“More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the Bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.”

Golly — how did you come by such information? Surely not through your own paper, which has been as silent as the grave on the subject.

That she casually vouchsafes this piece of incredibly important fact in the midst of one of her ritual attacks on a fellow vagina-owner (this time Nancy Pelosi) is striking, particularly in light of the fact that the usually razor-sharp Frank Rich is asleep at the switch.

“No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration’s high ambitions.”

Drip is right. Put down the PR Kool-Aid, Frank. Barry has no “high ambitions.” He’s there to serve the power structure that gave the job. And part and parcel of keeping it is “Mainstream” media that fails to report the news and/or fumbles on reporting what’s taking place right before it’s eyes.

“Police officers in Moscow quickly suppressed a gay rights demonstration on Saturday, detaining dozens of protesters who hoped to showcase discrimination in Russia ahead of the Eurovision song contest final on Saturday evening.
The approximately 40 people rounded up face misdemeanor charges for trying to hold what a police spokesman, Anatoly Lastovetsky, called “unsanctioned” demonstrations.
Such demonstrations have become an annual headache for the Moscow authorities, who refuse to grant permission to organizers to hold the events despite constitutional guarantees protecting freedom of assembly.
While there were no reports of violence on Saturday, the crackdown on this year’s protest could prove an embarrassment as thousands of European visitors were gathered here for the Eurovision final, a huge pop music spectacle. Dima Bilan, a Russian pop star, won last year’s contest in Serbia.
Gay rights campaigners called on participants and fans to boycott the contest in response to what they said was the government’s failure to guarantee even the most basic rights to gay men and lesbians.
No mention of the gay rights protest was made at the Eurovision final Saturday night, which was won by Norway’s Alexander Rybak. “

Well isn’t that special? A gay rights protest is a “headache.”

And not for the protesters whose heads are being bashed in, but for the police doing the bashing!

Has Abe Rosenthal come back from the dead?

As always one must repair to Greater Blogistan to learn the facts, this time out from the ever-accurate Joe My God.

“After earlier (apparently erroneous) reports that Rybak had refused to pose for a photo with gay fans, Norway’s winner had this to say at the post-ceremony press conference:
‘Why did they (the Moscow police) spend all their energy stopping gays in Moscow when the biggest gay parade was here tonight?’ ”

Indeed it was. It would be nice if Moscow LBGT citizens had more than this parade, however festive.